Content by Keyword: Information Technology

Findings from Virginia illustrate important opportunities and challenges facing consortia that work with health centers to maximize benefits from administrative and clinical information systems. Many of the conclusions presented here highlight challenges owed to the rapidly changing context for safety net activities in Virginia and elsewhere.

In this section we summarize health center experience using software and other systems resources currently available in Virginia. In particular, we describe their experience using the MegaWest practice management software, their very early experience using REACH’s MORE Access, and overall organizational interactions with CCNV, ComCare and REACH.

In this section we describe the information systems capacity at each of our interviews with consolidated health centers and other primary care safety net providers in Virginia, as well as their experience and perceptions from working with CCNV/ComCare and REACH on systems priorities.

In addition to extensive discussions with leadership at CCNV/ComCare, the VPCA, and REACH, core site visit activities included in person or telephone meetings with seven community-based ambulatory care safety net providers in Richmond and other parts of Virginia. Overall, we found that health centers interviewed in Virginia differ substantially in

“Richmond Enhancing Access to Community Healthcare,” or REACH, is a partnership between more than 13 public and private health stakeholders in Richmond, including safety net health centers (both CHCs and free clinics), an academic health center, the City Health Department, the Bon Secours Richmond Health System, HCA Healthcare, the Central Vir

This site visit focuses primarily on health center experience working with the Community Care Network of Virginia (CCNV), a for-profit provider network of safety net health centers and small private practices incorporated in 1996 and supported through federal grants and revenue-generating services. CCNV’s activities range from provider credentia

As mentioned above, site selection for the current project depends largely on the presence of ongoing activity related to building health information system capacity and infrastructure among consolidated health centers. As such, many of the sites selected are States or local areas where consolidated health centers and other safety net stakeholders

Twenty-seven consolidated health centers currently operate within the State of Virginia and three more will go live in the coming months. The majority of these centers are in rural locations scattered throughout Virginia, with heavier concentrations in the southeast and southwest areas of the state. Four health centers, including two CHCs, support

NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) is pleased to present this report detailing findings from our recent site visit to Virginia for “Community Health Center Information Systems Assessment: Issues and Opportunities.” NORC conducted this site visit under contract with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)

Information provided by SKYCAP suggest that the case management portion of the initiative has substantially helped low income or uninsured residents navigate health and social safety net services available in the four county service area. The findings from this case study suggest that the use of lay health workers accessing a community-wide tracki

As described above, provider use of SKYCAP varies substantially. Interviews with various providers highlighted specific issues and concerns with respect to tracking clients under SKYCAP, relating both to the general user-friendliness of the system and to specific functionalities of the database and tracking application. In this section we describe

As with other community provider networking activities, the success of SKYCAP depends largely on active participation from community-based providers. In addition to technical challenges related to provider participation, network organizers face the challenge of assisting local providers to incorporate use of their application into the daily routin

Most of the clinics we interviewed in the Southeastern Kentucky region did not have a robust technical infrastructure or support staff, although access to information technology resources and staff expertise varied significantly across the region. Some of the region’s larger health centers and primary care clinics have a more sophisticated lev

As in other regions investigated as part of this study, safety net ambulatory health care providers in Southeastern Kentucky enjoy varying levels of access to health information technologies and applications. In this section we describe systems capacity at community health centers interviewed in Southeastern Kentucky. We also describe their experi

SKYCAP’s technical infrastructure is designed to accommodate challenges associated with supporting networked health care applications in a rural environment, including relative lack of reliable, high-speed data transfer capabilities and lack of IT resources and expertise on the part of health care providers. The following section describes basic

SKYCAP’s client tracking system supports a range of services that are available for use by different members of the community. Its main function is as a data collection tool and community resources databank. As discussed above, various levels of information are input by FHNs, providers and other SKYCAP staff in the community and are stored i

SKYCAP is not a single organization with a dedicated set of staff or resources. Key activities are governed and managed by staff from several community partners. The University of Kentucky Center for Rural Health administers the project and provides key staff including a Program Director and Educational Coordinator. In addition to leadership s

We begin by describing the environment from which SKYCAP emerged and key aspects of SKYCAP’s early history, including the impetus behind the development of the program, its organizational structure, and the core functions it now provides to the community.

As noted above, this case study sought to investigate state and local initiatives to improve use of information systems among ambulatory safety net providers. Besides the Kentucky e-Health network, a program (currently in early development) to establish a statewide health information infrastructure, SKYCAP was the only such initiative in the Haz

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